Archived News:

Wednesday, Dec 10, 2003 Happy Birthday DOOM!

Steam News has
details on the latest weekly update to the broadband content delivery system.
The post describes fixes it provides for all games as well as specific changes
to Day of Defeat as well as tweaks to Counter-Strike and TeamFortress Classic.
Thanks Frans.

The first installment of the Microsoft
Flight Simulator 2004: A Century of Flight SDK is now available for download
(thanks Frans). Here's the deal: "The Flight Simulator team is publishing
this reference for developers and enthusiasts who want to customize and create
add-ons for Flight Simulator 2004. We're publishing the SDK in installments,
which will roll out over the next several weeks. Although portions of the SDK
may prove useful to Flight Simulator enthusiasts with little or no programming
experience, keep in mind that many parts of the SDK assume familiarity with XML,
the C programming language, and game development."

A trailer from Wars and Warriors: Joan of Arc is now available, showing off
Enlight's upcoming action/strategy game based on the famed Maid of Orleans. The
movie is a 104 MB download, available from The
Adrenaline Vault and mirrored on Gamer's
Hell and Worthplaying.

A playable demo of WWII Pacific Heroes is now available, offering a sample of
CITY interactive's upcoming World War II arcade air combat game. The demo
features a pair of levels featuring air and ground targets for a 50 MB download,
available on 3D Gamers,
with a mirror available on Boomtown
(registration required), FileFront,
Loadedinc (registration required), and Gamer's
Hell.

A new package of six new multiplayer maps for Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy is now
available from Raven Software, though the pack is provided as an unsupported
"as is" release. Here's the word: "Included in this map pack are
6 new MP maps (1 Duel, 1 CTF, and 4 FFA). Once installed, new maps will appear
on top of the existing ones in the map selection list. Press OK to unzip to your
Jedi Academy installation folder (the default installation path is selected
automatically)." The 14 MB download is available from 3D
Downloads, 3D Gamers,
Gamer's
Hell, Loadedinc
(registration required), and Worthplaying.

The
Shadowbane Website (thanks Frans) has word that The Rise of Chaos, the
Shadowbane expansion pack, is now available in North America, and that the MMOG
update has now gone live. Here's a bit:

The expansion for Shadowbane®,
the critically acclaimed massively multiplayer online (MMO) game for both PC and
Macintosh, features new high-level content including more than 30 new adventure
areas and a new race, the Nephilim, a chaotic fusion of demon and man that has
arisen from the forces of darkness. In addition, two new classes, the Doomsayer,
a priest of Chaos, and the Sentinel, holy warriors who devote their lives to
holding Chaos at bay, add to the ever-growing adventure.

A patch for Medal of Honor Allied Assault Breakthrough is now available,
updating the World War II shooter expansion to version 2.40b. The update adds
some new skins, while addressing several bugs. The patch is a 34 MB download,
available on EA
Europe's FTP Server (direct link), and mirrored on 3D
Gamers, Boomtown
(registration required), FileFront,
Gamer's
Hell, and Worthplaying.

HomeLAN Fed's Dead Man's
Hand Developers Diary - Part 3 is online, offering further thoughts on the
upcoming wild west shooter from Human Head's Tim Gerritson. Tim describes a
glitch that caused an unfinished version of the Xbox game to be reviewed by some
publications, and on a happier note, confirms that the game is also going
to be released on the PC:

Many people have written in to us due to their
astute observation that certain online retailers are now taking preorders for
Dead Man's Hand for the PC. Yes, I can now indeed confirm that Dead Man's Hand
will be released for the PC in 2004. We can't say much more than that just yet,
but we will definitely be on the PC.

CALABASAS
HILLS, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 10, 2003--THQ Inc. (Nasdaq:THQI - News)
today announced "Warhammer® 40,000: Dawn of War(TM)," the first
real-time strategy title in its agreement with industry-leading PC development
studio Relic Entertainment Inc. Based on the world of "Warhammer
40,000" -- the dark, futuristic, fantasy universe traveled by millions
worldwide from Games Workshop (LSE:GAW - News), the world's largest tabletop
wargames company -- "Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War" is scheduled for
release in fall 2004.

"`Warhammer 40,000' encompasses an extremely rich universe where legions of
warriors engage in intense tactical combat scenarios, the perfect backdrop for a
real-time strategy experience," said Philip Holt, Vice President of Product
Development, THQ. "When we looked for a developer, Relic's expertise in the
genre and passion for the license made them the ideal fit."

Middle-Earth OnlineToTheGame's
Middle -Earth Online Q&A chats with Christopher Taylor about the
upcoming Tolkien-inspired MMORPG, discussing the basics of the game,
learning a bit about what types of activities players will be undertaking.

The Nuclearvision News
Page (thanks Frans) has the follow-up on reports that the demise of
Psychotoxic (story) have been exaggerated (story).
Here's the deal: "nuclearvision and cdv made an out of court agreement.
nuclearvision is now the sole owner of the rights for the project 'psychotoxic'.
the game will be finnished [sic] in febuary [sic]. some publishers have already
shown interest in a publishing deal."

Action
Vault's Kuma War Developer Diary #3 is online, written by Dante Anderson,
director of game development at Kuma Reality Games to discuss Kuma: War, their
upcoming modern combat game. He goes into detail about the "Kuma: War
classic mission entitled Operation Anaconda. It covers the 10th Mountain
Division in Afghanistan in a battle at the opening of this operation on March 2,
2002."

Version 2.1 of the Steel's World
modification for Dungeon Siege: Legends of Aranna, featuring "a rewritten
story with original quests and enemies, custom items, rebalanced difficulty
levels with level 50 character support, and more!"

Atari Releases
"Mission Impossible - Operation Surma."
"Infiltrating stores nationwide today, Atari’s Mission: Impossible®
- Operation Surma brings all the action and intrigue of the Mission:
Impossible movie franchise to the PlayStation®2 computer entertainment
system, the Xbox® video game system from Microsoft and the Game Boy®
Advance. Developed by Atari’s Paradigm Entertainment, Mission:
Impossible – Operation Surma presents players with a true mission
impossible as they become IMF agent Ethan Hunt in an effort to stop the
diabolical plans of the Surma Corporation."

"Leading video games publisher and developer Namco Hometek Inc.
announced today that its highly anticipated, intricately detailed, action
racing experience, R: Racing
Evolution, has begun shipping to retail outlets nationwide. Developed
for the PlayStation®2 computer entertainment system, the Xbox® videogame
system from Microsoft, and the Nintendo GameCube™."

"The
XSN Sports World Championship will be held Feb. 11–12, 2004 in Los
Angeles. Eight participants, with one guest each, will be flown to that city
to compete for a $25,000 grand prize and the bragging rights that come with
the title of XSN Sports World Champion."

World's
Largest Gaming League to Standardize on NVIDIA Hardware. Also: "DreamCatcher
Games’ first person shooter, Painkiller, is set to make its long-awaited first
public appearance at the CPL Winter
2003 Championship, at the Hyatt Regency hotel in Dallas, Texas, from December
16th to 20th. The game will be showcased on the Nvidia and Netfire booths with a
3-on-3 Death-Match tournament taking place at Netfire’s stand."

Ubisoft sends word of a new bundle: "Enter Tom Clancy's World of
Elite Counter-Terror Action as Ubisoft is pleased to announce the release of
three spectacular elite counter-terror games in one, Tom Clancy's
Counter-Terrorism Classics Pack! The pack includes critically acclaimed
best-sellers: Rainbow Six®, Rainbow Six®: Rogue Spear (tm), and The Sum of
All Fears(tm)."...

Happy birthday DOOM! I'm guessing it's as surprising to many of you as it is to
me that the grand old game came out ten years ago today, so I won't try to place
that in perspective. I will definitely be playing some DOOM today (probably DOOM
II actually, it's hard to eschew the double-barrel shotgun) to celebrate the
anniversary of what remains one of my very favorite games of all time. On a sort
of related note, I see on HomeLAN
Fed that some older id games, including Final DOOM, can be purchased online
now at the id
Software Store.

A couple of folks have written into point out the RSS feed seems to be broken...
I'll try and see if I can figure out what's gone wrong with that today.